Not Just A Cat Chapter Two
Not Just A Cat Chapter Two I looked down at one of my eight white pawns. If I moved it up, the black castle would take it. But another pawn was below it, so I could easily take the black castle. But I didn't notice one particular piece that was about to checkmate me. "Okay, Lance," I said, looking up from the chessboard, pretending not to know that the pawn was there. My younger brother, Lance, was sitting on the opposite end of the table. I wanted my brother's chess skills so badly. He always beat me, and he always called dibs on the black pieces, too. But I was going to beat him this game. "I know what you're trying to do," I said. "I'll let you do it, just this once." I moved my pawn up. But instead of moving his castle, he knocked out my pawn with his second castle. My eyes widened. "No!" I exclaimed. The second castle was ready to attack my king, which was in direct hit of the second castle. "Check," said Lance. "Crud," I muttered. I did the only thing I could think of- took his second castle with my pawn. He then took my pawn with his first castle. "Dang it!" I exclaimed. I looked down. I only had a few pawns, a castle, and a king left. I then smiled. "Not today, brother," I smiled. I then moved my piece to the left. "Out of check!" I exclaimed in victory. Lance then smiled. He moved a piece to the left a few times until it was across from my king. I gasped. His queen. Crud. "Checkmate!" Lance exclaimed. "No!" I screamed. "Come on, why can't I win?!" "Do you want me to let you win?" Lance asked, setting the pieces back up. "No," I said, slumping down in my seat. "Why do you always win?" "Because you fall for my traps," Lance pointed out. "You're a fail," I said. "Ditto," he replied, smiling at me. I sighed and set my pieces back up, thinking about how much of a failure I was at this game. I hadn't won a single game of chess in my life. My thoughts then went back to tonight as I looked out the window. The sun was still high in the sky. Lance and I had just finished our afternoon game of chess with my magnetic chessboard that I got for Christmas, so it was time to call Trinity and Nicole and plan out where we would depart from tonight. I picked up the phone. "Lance, don't bother me, I'm calling the girls," I informed my brother as I dialed the phone number. I always referred to Trinity and Nicole as 'the girls' because usually when I referred to two girls, it was usually them. Lance nodded. He didn't like my friends, but hey, he's my brother, things wouldn't be normal in the Rider household if he did like them. ---- I ran into my room with the phone, Trinity having picked up the phone. "Kelsi?" she asked. "Hey Trin," I said. "Kelsi, I told you to stop calling me that!" Trinity exclaimed. "Trinity, I've been calling you that for years, one would think that you would be used to it by now," I said. "Anyway…" I looked around to make sure nobody was listening. Not a soul. "Where do you want to leave from tonight?" "What?" Trinity asked. "Oh! Into the animal world. Well, I was thinking that it could be my house, because my pets are here." "I was thinking that, too," I said. "Okay, bring a backpack full of stuff that we would need." "Such as?" Trinity asked. "Those Chinese clothes that Mr. Ping gave us, some jeans, shoes, flashlights," I listed. "Food for the cat and hamster… and raspberry bars." "Why would we need some of your mom's delicious treats?" Trinity asked, referring to the raspberry bars that my mom always made. "Because Lance is going to hog them all today," I replied. "We should take them before he eats them all." "Kelsi, no time passes in the human world when all three Dragon Sisters are in the animal world," Trinity explained, as if I didn't know. "I know," I replied. "I'm just saying that because he eats them that fast." She laughed a bit. "Okay, okay," she said. "Be at our house at around… eleven forty five." "How do I get in?" I asked. "Um," she muttered, thinking. "I'll leave the door unlocked. Hopefully Toni won't get out." "Right," I said. "I advise you to start packing. See ya!" "Bye," Trinity said. We hung up our phones. ---- I walked back down to the kitchen and put the phone back. Lance was sitting there, drinking a cup of orange juice. "What were you talking about?" he asked. "Um, going over to their house tomorrow," I responded. "She wanted to call me early. You know the Bacons." Lance nodded and sipped his orange juice. "Actually, I don't. Where's mom?" he asked. "Why do you expect me to know?" I asked. "Because," was all he replied. "I don't know," I said. "Oh, here she is!" Mom walked out of the laundry room, carrying a basket of freshly washed clothes. With her short, brown hair, mom didn't look anything like us. The only similarity was her blue-green eyes. "Yeah?" mom asked Lance. "Uh, mom, can you help me with my math homework?" Lance asked. "Why couldn't you ask me to help you?" I asked. Mom signaled for me to shush it. "Sure," she said, placing the basket on the floor next to Lance's chair and stood next to him. "What do you have?" I glanced at them and walked upstairs. ---- I had already finished my homework, so I could relax. I grabbed my laptop (well, it's my dad's second laptop, but it stays in my room at all times, so it's technically mine) and turned it on. The picture of Moka from my favorite anime show, Rosario Vampire, came up as my background. I clicked on 'Microsoft Works' and continued to type up my most recent story, 'Red Meteor'. It's about a school bully named Minnah, who only has two friends, Hailey and Lina. On the fourth of July, a meteor comes down onto Earth. On that meteor is an alien who was banished from his planet for not accepting to marry the princess. They meet, and after that, the chaos begins. I resumed typing, but my thoughts kept going back to tonight. I was very excited. The thought of defeating more warriors made my heart want to go right now. But I would have to wait until eleven forty five tonight… ---- I slipped into the dark, quiet house. Everything seemed quiet. A little too quiet, which made me shiver as I closed the door behind me quickly, not wanting anyone to be woken up. As soon as I stepped I heard something make a yawning sound. I looked up at the stairs. Kahn. "Toni, shush!" I whispered. I then picked the cat up, carrying him in my arms and walked up the stairs, down the hall, and into Trinity and Nicole's room. "Guys?" I asked. "I'm here." The girls weren't asleep. They were up, playing cards on Trinity's bed. Trinity looked up. "Hey, Kelsi," she greeted silently. "Got Toni?" I nodded, placing the cat on Nicole's bed. "Take Tewey out of his cage, the moon will be in its full power any second now," I said. Nicole took Tewey out of his cage. The light colored hamster squirmed around in Nicole's hands after spotting Kahn. Kahn lunged for the hamster. "No!" I said, throwing myself over Kahn, holding him back. "Kahn, stop it!' Kahn hissed at Tewey, who looked like he would give anything to be back in his cage, where he would be protected from the horrible monster in front of him. I squeezed Kahn tighter, making sure that he didn't eat the golden colored hamster in front of him. All of a sudden, my necklace started glowing. I looked at it. The moon was brighter. "It's time!" I said. "Hold Tewey as tight as you can without hurting him, Nicole!" Nicole nodded, looking at her glowing blue diamond. Then, the light flooded the room. It came to a point where it was blinding, and I shut my eyes. I then felt like I was falling. I heard a voice scream, but it was none of us. I then opened my eyes and saw stars and a moon appear on the black canvas of where I was falling. I smiled, screaming. I was here. ---- I then hit the ground with a thud. I looked up and saw everyone next to me, having fallen before me. I spotted the familiar houses and buildings all over the place. But I then spotted steps. Thousands of them. I smiled. I was back. "Ugh! What the heck was up with that?" I turned around. Everyone had gotten up. Kahn was rubbing his head, sighing, standing on his hind legs- wait, STANDING?! "We never had to fall from the sky to get into the human world," he said. His voice was a bit deep and unmistakably male. "Oh, well." "Toni?!" Trinity exclaimed, eyes wide with shock like the rest of ours. "You can talk here?" "Of course I can," Kahn replied to his owner. "And why have all of you been calling me 'Toni' for the past few years? My name's Kahn, not'' Toni''." "Well, it's a cool nickname that my mom made for you," Nicole explained. "One thing about me, I hate nicknames," Kahn replied. "I had plenty of them while I was growing up. You're alright, Nicole, you actually call me by my real name." Nicole smiled. "Before we say anything more, can we actually get clothes?" I heard a small voice ask. We looked at the ground. Tewey was standing up on his hind legs, rubbing his side. "I don't feel… normal." "Aww!" Nicole said. "Tewey, you're so cute!" Before anyone could say anything else, Kahn looked at Tewey, licked his lips, and lunged at him. "No!" Trinity yelled, throwing herself over her cat. "No, Kahn, bad cat! BAD!" Kahn had been pinned to the ground and was now squirming. Nicole had cupped Tewey in his hands, and he was shivering with fear. "Come on, we'd better get up to the palace before Kahn has a midnight snack," I said. Trinity carefully let Kahn go, and he rolled his eyes and ran up the thousand steps. We ran after him. Trinity allowed Tewey to sit on her shoulder. I ran up the stairs, desperate to see Po and the other warriors again. I wanted to train so badly. I wanted to feel my leg kicking the training dummy and see the other masters doing advanced Kung Fu moves. I missed the animal world. ---- We finally reached the top of the stairs, breathing heavily. "MASTER SHIFU!" I yelled, flinging open the doors. "MASTER SHIFU, WE'RE BACK!" I recognized the Sacred Hall of Warriors, and my eyes went to the sword of heroes- my sword that has been passed down from child to child, Dragon Sister to Dragon Sister, from warrior to warrior. And now the Sword of Heroes was mine. I looked around, hoping that the warriors will have awoken and were running down the hall to meet us. "Humans! You should have more respect for your elders and think twice before- who are they?!"